May Desktop Wallpaper / Dance to the Morning Light
Before a photo shoot I like to scope out my location. This particular shoot I was scouting for was to have a mountainous background for a car in the foreground. This particular day quite cloudy. It was so cloudy in fact that I couldn’t even see any of the mountains. What do you do when [...]
March Desktop Wallpaper / Moonlight Over Minnewanka
Back in December last year (2012) I went on a road trip to Banff National Park with Aiofe and her family. We spent the day hiking out in Johnston Canyon and window shopping at the Banff town site. Aiofe, her mom and sister went to the Banff Hot Springs while I took the opportunity to do [...]
January Desktop Wallpaper / New Dawn
Happy New Year! To set the year of right I decided to wake up early on New Year’s day. Originally I was going to play some hockey with friends but that didn’t work out so I was up before dawn with nothing to do except catch the sunrise. With no destination in mind I just [...]
December Desktop Wallpaper / Canyon Mist
Again, another late wallpaper offering for the month of December. On the bright side you can enjoy it throughout the holidays. This image was taken in Kananaskis Country. It’s an intimate capture of Blue Rock Canyon in the Sheep River Provincial Park. Field Notes: Nikon D800 / Nikon 16-35mm f4.0 @ 27mm f16 / 2 [...]
Help-Portrait 2012 | Thanks Vistek
Saturday, December 8th, 2012 marked another successful Help-Portrait campaign in Calgary. Help-Portrait is a worldwide initiative to provide portraits to those who otherwise could not get one. The Calgary volunteers were able to provide over 450 prints during the one day event at the Calgary Drop-In Centre. A big thanks goes out to Vistek for [...]
November Desktop Wallpaper / McDougall Memorial United Church
I’ve been swamped the past few weeks and so I’ve been delinquent in delivering this month’s free desktop wallpaper. I hope you can all forgive me. The November 2012 free desktop wallpaper is a long exposure of the McDougall Memorial United Church. I’ve been here a few times before but I’ve never had any luck until now. [...]
100 Years 100 Faces of the Stampede | Day 1
When I first thought up this crazy project it took me a few days to decide if I really wanted to do it. It would involve me going to the Stampede almost every day for ten days. Each of those days, instead of trying to win prizes on the midway, instead of going on thrilling [...]
Wonders of Science | A Drug that Boosts Productivity and Creativity
Finally, the miracle cure busy photographers have been waiting for: Fauxtographor, creative tablets. A pill that can increase creativity and boost productivity. We’ve all been there. It’s 2am and you’ve got hundreds more photos to edit from the shoot you did the night before. The client wants he or her photos within 48 hours and [...]
September Wallpaper / Hang on to Summer
OK, so September’s free wallpaper download isn’t going to make headlines like Apple announcing the iPhone 5 today. But because August came and left in a blink of an eye let’s hang on to summer with this month’s wallpaper. In a few weeks, at the end of this month we’ll be wondering where all the [...]
What Inspires You? Pt. 3
In the past I’ve written a few posts asking the question, “what inspires you?” It’s been quite awhile since I did an inspiration post so once I saw this video on YouTube of Ken Block doing his 5th installment of his Gymkhana series I was, let’s just say, QUITE inspired. Now granted, a race car [...]
Is It Possible to Fake a Professional Photographer?
The brilliant guys at DigitalRevTV did an interesting experiment. They took a non-photographer and showed him the ropes for a week and put him up against a real professional photographer. They tried to find out if someone could spot the fake. It’s an interesting point that they make. Fancy gear and expensive equipment doesn’t make [...]
Leah & Nick Engagement Teaser Shot
I met Leah & Nick last year and totally hit it off with them. I also met Leah’s mother who is adorable. I can’t wait for their wedding in September. Here’s a teaser shot of their engagement session from Fish Creek park in Calgary. It started pouring rain a few hours before the photo shoot. [...]
Instant Art Featured on Anne Wright Photography Blog / Father’s Day Gift Ideas
I was happy to see that Anne Wright a talented and wonderful photographer in Calgary blogged about Father’s Day emergency gift ideas. With it being only one full day left for Father’s Day if you haven’t gotten your dad anything yet she has some really unique ideas that won’t break the bank. One of the [...]
West Coast Part 3 / Seattle, Coffee Central of the Pacific
Published by: Mabuhay Calgary February 2011, 5th Edition Volume II Copyright: Mabuhay Calgary West Coast Part 3 / Seattle, Coffee Central of the Pacific – Article and Photos by: Jeff Cruz In order to get to Seattle we boarded a United States ferry in Syndey, BC, which is just outside of Victoria. The ferry was [...]
Annie Leibovitz at Work / I’ll Bet You’ll Enjoy This Book
Part of the reason why I love photography so much is it allows me to express my vision and emotions into a single image. Finding out what other photographers love and are passionate about makes me a better photographer. Annie Leibovitz’s book entitled: Annie Liebovitz at Work is an amazing read. My friend Noel who [...]
Best Superbowl Commercial of 2012
What makes a Superbowl commercial? You have to be witty, funny, concise, smart and evoke emotion all within about a minute. Not unlike a photograph you have one chance to get your viewers to see your story and feel what you are feeling. The emotion that you get out of watching this commercial is something [...]
Best of Superbowl Commercials 2012
Every year we tune in to one of the biggest sporting events in team sports. The big Superbowl game. If you’re like me then you’re not watching the big game because you want to see who ranks supreme in football but commercials. The commercials are teeming with superstar actors and sometimes production budgets bigger than [...]
What Inspires You? Pt. 2
It’s been awhile since I wrote a blog post about inspiration. I thought it was about time I talked about it again. This time the theme is inspiration to keep going and moving on. Last week I was fortunate enough to meet one of my inspirations and heros. Zack Arias, an editorial and commercial photographer [...]
A Month in Review / March 2011
Wow… time seems to fly doesn’t it? It just feels like yesterday when I got back from Vegas and the WPPI convention where I learned so much from other industry leading professionals. The picture above is from my trip last year to Arizona and Utah with my good friends Chris and Chris (yes, a couple [...]
Legaci Interview / Discovered by Justin Bieber
When Anne Claire Danan called me up one day and asked if I wanted to help her cover a story on Legaci I have to admit I was like, “who?!?”. We’ve all been there at one point or another. When someone you know helps you lead the way to new experiences. After saying yes I [...]
iPhone Photography / Instant Gratification With Instagram
My New iPhone 4 For those of you who follow me on Twitter or on Facebook you probably already know that I finally gave in and got an iPhone 4. I’ve been a loyal Nokia user since cell phones had LED lights and you had to push *4 on the keypad to see how much [...]
Viva Las WPPI 2011 / Meeting Rodney Lough Jr.
This was my first year at WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International). For those of you who might not know what it’s about read on. If you’re well versed in what WPPI is all about then read on anyways to hear what I thought of it. I did the trade show and a few platform [...]
Rising Edge Christmas Party / Red Carpet Booth
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Rising Edge Technologies and Rising Edge Engineering had their company Christmas party in November. I thought I’d post a few pictures from the Red Carpet booth that my good friend George Cox took care of while I was doing the portrait booth. Great job Geroge! And thanks to Rising Edge Technologies and Rising Edge Engineering [...]
What Inspires You? Pt. 1
This is my first post in what hopes to be a long and perhaps never ending segment on inspiration. Sometimes we lose track of what inspires us to create. I know that I’m guilty of this quite often. We are too busy trying to pay the bills, get to work on time, driving the kids [...]
